Conor McGregor wants everybody to stop asking whether he’ll fight bare knuckle. “I’m f*cking doing it,” McGregor said, according to Damon Martin, who posted the quote on X along with word that the Irishman is emphatic he’ll be in BKFC sooner rather than later.
That’s a strong line from a guy who also owns a piece of the promotion. McGregor took an ownership stake in BKFC in 2024 and has flirted with fighting there more than once. This week he made the flirting official.
The louder version came a few days earlier. Speaking with Spitfire Gym Berlin while at the Hype Italy event on Monday, McGregor laid out the plan. He’ll fight out his UFC deal, then make the jump. “I’m gonna lay off my gloves in that octagon for my final UFC contract, but not to retire; to announce bare knuckle!” he said, per MMA Fighting.
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He sounded like a man who has already made peace with the dental bill. “Eh, teeth come and go! Just like a nose, it means nothing!” McGregor said. He also said bare knuckle “takes more courage for me, I think, to get in,” and even wondered aloud whether he was only saying all this because his last MMA outing went so badly.
About that outing. McGregor came back from a five-year layoff to headline UFC 329 against Max Holloway in July, and it was over in 69 seconds when he suffered a leg injury, the same one that shelved him for years in the first place. He had surgery and isn’t expected back until next summer. His UFC record since boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017 sits at 1-4.
One fight remains on the contract. McGregor has shown interest in running it back with Holloway given how unsatisfying the first one was, and Henry Cejudo floated Justin Gaethje as a hypothetical opponent.
Cejudo doesn’t think the UFC should bother. On his Pound 4 Pound podcast, the former two-division champ said the promotion should just release McGregor rather than pay for the last fight, pointing to the $30 million he believes McGregor made against Holloway and the end of the pay-per-view model under the Paramount deal. “At this point, he’s just f*cking trolling,” Cejudo said. “I don’t believe anything that he’s saying.” He also conceded McGregor is still a draw, citing the announced $26 million gate for UFC 329.
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MMA Fighting’s Morning Report offered its own prediction: McGregor probably does one BKFC fight eventually, but boxes Jake Paul first for the money. That’s an opinion, labeled as such, and I wouldn’t bet against it.
My take: I like a fighter who answers the question straight, and McGregor just did, with a swear word for emphasis. The problem is the order of operations. Between him and a BKFC ring sit a rebuilt knee, a final UFC fight that nobody has booked, and a 1-4 run that makes any quick timeline for the bare-knuckle debut sound optimistic. Next summer is the earliest anyone expects him to compete at all, and that fight happens with gloves on.
